Background Social enterprises must balance between profitability and sustainability. The impetus on sustainability grew further after the adaption of the SDG agenda by the United Nations (UN). Objective This paper examines the role of social enterprises in helping attain sustainable development goals in India. Research design This multi-stage paper comprises three studies directed at scale development, scale refinement, pre-testing, and construct validity. The scale development stage is conducted through a combination of extensive literature review and focused group discussions. Expert discussions and item-reduction techniques have been used in the second stage aimed at scale refinement and pre-testing. The third stage of testing construct validity is carried out through Partial Least Square–Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Results The findings suggest that all the competencies of social enterprises identified in the study i.e. social mission, collaborative networks, innovation, financial viability and level of scalability significantly impact sustainable development. Conclusion Because the goals of social enterprises and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are mutually reinforcing and complementary, the study suggests that social enterprises have a lot of potential for achieving the SDGs. The study also suggests future research directions and policy implications that can be replicated in other countries.

As cities continue to grow, managing the increasing amount of waste has become an important concern. The study intends to assess the effects of waste generation and treatment on total resource productivity, as well as its subset, energy productivity, in European Union (EU) countries. The research employs the Driscoll-Kraay standard errors fixed effect model using panel regression. The findings reveal that waste generation impacts negatively on overall resource productivity and energy productivity. Furthermore, waste treatment also has a negative impact on resource productivity and energy productivity. These results suggest that despite the reduction in waste volumes achieved through treatment, the process may still have a negative relationship with productivity outcomes. The paper explores the underlying reasons for these findings and evaluates the status of waste generation and treatment across EU countries. Implications suggest introducing public-private partnerships to strengthen waste treatment processes, eco-tax solutions, incentives to green organizations, penalties for environmentally harmful practices, and improved data accessibility for informed decision-making. This study evaluates waste treatment techniques in the EU, focusing on the implementation of circular economy principles to promote sustainable development, increase resource productivity, and strengthen waste management frameworks.